Apple’s patent war with Samsung is finally over

Apple and Samsung Electronics have reached a settlement in their US patents battle, putting an end to a seven-year fight over smartphone designs.

The string of lawsuits started in 2011 when Apple sued Samsung for allegedly copying the design of the iPhone in the creation of its own line of smartphones.

Terms of the accord weren’t immediately disclosed. The settlement follows a damages retrial in which Apple won a US$539-million jury award in May. In a previous publicised settlement over patents with HTC, Apple didn’t disclose settlement terms. Apple and Samsung didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

In 2012, a jury awarded Apple more than $1-billion in its initial showdown with its South Korean rival in federal court in San Jose, California. That verdict triggered multiple appeals all the way to the US supreme court. The companies also faced off in a separate trial in the same court over different patent infringement claims. — Reported by Mark Gurman and Joel Rosenblatt, with assistance from Susan Decker, (c) 2018 Bloomberg LP